Throughout my time at my placement school, I saw an array of work that had been carried out throughout engagement with sustainable development education. At least one pupil from each class is involved in the schools gardening club which is part of the schools Eco Committee. This group of children are in charge of the schools off-campus allotment where they grow plants and vegetables. There are also designated litter-pickers within the school that work with other staff in the school to help make the outdoor spaces cleaner after playtime. In each class and the lunch hall, there are two different bins; one for general waste and the other for recycling, which the children are encouraged to use. Every class aims to take part in the daily mile every day, taking weather conditions into consideration. Throughout the school there are a number of wall displays that show the children’s involvement in sustainable development education, with the majority being seen at the lower end of the school (P1-3/4). There is one display in particular where you can see that the children have made paper plate wreaths using autumn leaves and there are also pictures of other work they have carried out outdoors. After talking with the class teacher, she informed me of a series of lessons that were carried out at Dolphin House at Culzean Castle. Here the children learned about sustainable energy and the effects of pollution. The children in the class also carried out an activity where they made bird feeders and bird boxes, but these are not used on school grounds (I suspect because the children took them home). As well as learning about sustainable energy and pollution, the children had an input in the local Tesco and Asda where they learned about food miles and where food comes from; farm to fork. The class teacher also informed me that every year the primary 4 class go to a local farm every year and this is organised through a local farming body. Below are some pictures of the sustainable education learning seen in the school.
The actual play space for children on the school grounds, in my opinion, is suitable but there is room for improvement. As you can see from the mapping below, there are two large tarmacked playgrounds, a very small wooden climbing frame, a football pitch and a very large patch of open grass. These areas ‘do the job’, but it would be lovely if the school could secure some funding to expand their outdoor play areas for the children. Perhaps by adding different climbing frames or to be really exciting a pirate ship that the children can play on (just as an idea!). I would say that the children enjoy the play space they have, but would perhaps be even more engaged if they had other areas that they could play in. Compared to other school play areas I have seen, I would say that this school are quite lucky as they have a lot of grass where the children can run about. This is unlike some schools that only have very small tarmacked playgrounds for the children to use. None the less, I would love to see some new developments going on and taking the opportunity to use the children to help think of new ideas!
After discussing sustainable development education with the children, I was left bemused at their lack of knowledge. From all the displays and activities they have carried out in the past I though they would be full of knowledge and understanding of sustainable development and the aspects within it. Firstly, I asked them if they knew what sustainable development was, they did not, so I explained it to them, but still no joy. Then I asked them about different aspects within sustainable development, e.g. climate change and disasters. The children didn’t know what climate change was, however after I explained it a few children seemed to remember and mentioned if that was why they had recycling areas throughout the school. Finally I asked them about disasters and to this there were a few more responses. One girl in particular spent the rest of the day coming up to me and naming different disasters that she had thought of.
It seems that although the school have a number of sustainable development education programmes, not all the children get the opportunity to work on them. As I understand it, the children in the gardening club frequently visit the allotment, but rarely children from outwith the committee get the opportunity to work on or visit the allotment. This also seems to be the case with the litter wardens, only children who are chosen or are part of the Eco Committee are given the opportunity to partake.
If an outsider or guest at the school was walking through the halls, they would see an array of evidence of interaction with sustainable development education and the knowledge and understanding gained from these. However, it transpires that perhaps this is not the case, and this is seen after questioning my P5 class. I do understand that perhaps, sustainable development education is not the schools main priority. They are in an area of deprivation and I get the feeling that there focus is on supporting and educating the children as best they can with the resources they have available. Thus perhaps sustainable education is not at the top of their list of priorities. As a next step for the school, or even just a few classes, they should be more open to trialling sustainable development education, as after all, this generation will have to deal with the issues caused by their ancestors.
This week’s theme is all about energy. We looked at how long fossil fuels will last if our current consumption of them carries on and what kinds of sustainable energy there are. We also briefly covered how technology is advancing towards sustainable energy, in particular we looked at car manufacturers looking and electric and hydrogen cars. We also looked briefly at the different legislation and acts that are influencing Scotland’s move towards green and clean energy.
In the first workshop we did various experiments based on energy. We created short circuits to burn steel wool. We made magnets using nails and batteries, we looked at a hydro powered pulley system and categorising toes of energy sources and types. We also created dinosaur and squid hand puppets, we looked at static electricity using balloons and we also got to see our finished fossils from the previous week. We also looked at a solar powered Lego car. Almost all of these experiments would be practical to do in a classroom with the exception of the hydro and solar powered experiments. I think it would be unlikely that a school has such a piece of equipment but batteries and cables are easy to come by and usually come in electrical sets (I think). I would definitely use these experiments in a classroom as they are easy to set up and quite fun as well and I think that the children would enjoy them. here are some pictures and videos of the first workshop of the day.
Fossils
Static Electricity
Magnet
Short Circuit – Steel Wool
Energy Categorising
In the second workshop were were debating on wind power and wind turbines. We started off by reading through the resources on moodle so as to compile a list of positives and negatives relating to wind power. Then we were numbered and split into smaller groups to create one big list of negatives and positives. After we had done this the class was split in two; one for and one against wind energy. Our group was for wind energy and that meant that we would start the debate. We had to come up with an opening statement and a starting point. Five people were to volunteer to speak in the debate and they would use their groups points to argue the opposing teams points. The for team won the debate as our arguments were more convincing and our thinking was clearer. This activity was really quite good, I was nervous at first as I don’t particularly enjoy speaking out in front of my peers. However I was the first to volunteer and the first in my group to speak out. I would definitely use this activity in a class as it is great for developing communication and debating skills. Here are some pictures of the positives and negatives that each group came up with.
In this theme we have looked at the definition of a natural disaster, what classes as a natural disaster and how we could teach this subject in a classroom. There are many different types of natural disaster but here are a few examples: Tsunami, Earthquake, Hurricane, Flood, Tornado, Forest Fire and Typhoon. A disaster is defined as “a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins.” (IFRC, n.d.).
Skills I have developed throughout this theme are:
Presentation
Investigation
Confidence
Public Speaking
Practical skills – experiments etc.
When teaching children about natural disasters you have to be sensitive of their age, maturity and previous experiences. I would say that the younger the children are the more sensitive the information you give them in regards of injury and death tolls. As the children move up through the school they will begin to understand more of the language used when describing natural disasters, and although I wouldn’t give statistics of deaths and injuries, you could mention that the numbers are high.
I would start off with a simple definition of what a natural disaster is, then I would ask the class if they know what kinds of natural disaster there are. Then in groups the children would research a given natural disaster and present their findings to the class. We would then look at different experiments relating to natural disaster, some examples can be seen below. The children could then do a writing exercise where they have to come up with a plan for how they would prepare and execute escape for an imminent disaster.
Volcano – the children could make their own mini volcano
Tsunami – show the children how a tsunami is made my having ‘tectonic plates’ under the ‘ocean’ move
Earthquake – the children build mini buildings from various materials and then they go through an ‘earthquake’ and see if any collapse/stay standing
Tornado – using the paper and lamp method, the children can make their own Tornado
These are the experiences and outcomes that could be used for the topic of disasters:
I have collaborated in activities which safely demonstrate simple chemical
reactions using everyday chemicals. I can show an appreciation of a chemical
reaction as being a change in which different materials are made.
SCN 2-19a
I can make notes, organise them under suitable headings and use them to understand information, develop my thinking, explore problems and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.
LIT 2-15a
I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas
in different ways.
LIT 2-28a
As I write for different purposes and readers, I can describe and share my
experiences, expressing what they made me think about and how they made
me feel.
ENG 2-30a
I can create and present work that shows developing skill in using the visual
elements and concepts.
EXA 2-03a
By comparing my local area with a contrasting area outwith Britain, I can
investigate the main features of weather and climate, discussing the impact on living things.
SOC 2-12a
I can explain how the physical environment influences the ways in which
people use land by comparing my local area with a contrasting area.
SOC 2-13a
This week we started on natural disasters, a disaster is described as “a sudden, calamitous event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins” (IFRC, n.d.). In the first workshop we carried out some science based experiments all about disasters, these experiments included:
Make your own Volcano
Make your own fossil
Durability of rocks
Disaster areas of the world
Crystal formation
There was also an experiment that we watched which was a visual representation of a volcano erupting. There was a beaker with a layer of red wax, a layer of sand and then topped up with water. The beaker was placed on a tripod and heated using a Bunsen burner, as the wax melted you could hear it bubbling under the sand. When the pressure became too much, the wax burst through the sand and became a solid on top of the water. The wax was used to represent the magma, the sand was representing the Earth’s crust and the water was representing the air in the atmosphere. This was a very interesting experiment but unfortunately it would be unfeasible to do in a primary classroom as they don’t have gas valves that a Bunsen burner could connect to.
The second workshop was all about natural disasters and policy. We looked at different plans that governments have in place to prevent, prepare and respond to natural disasters. We also talked about which forms of disaster we would teach in a class and how we would teach these to children. We decided that teaching how a disaster occurs rather than the grim facts of a disaster would be more appropriate for children. Leaving out the number of deaths and injuries would be more child friendly than scaring the children with the dark death toll numbers. You would have to be sensitive to the age, maturity and backgrounds of the children in your class and change your teaching to suit these. For example, you would probably not teach a class of children about a forest fire is people in the class had experiences with that kind of disaster. As an activity we looked at two case studies in our groups, on was from an earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the other was an earthquake in Haiti. In pairs within our group we looked at one of the case studies and then discussed the differences in how each country dealt with the disaster, recovered from the disaster, prepared for the disaster, and which warning systems, and help they received from other countries.
For the second week of the topic we were tasked with doing a 15 minute presentation on a given disaster. Each group picked a disaster out of a hat and they had a week to prepare for the presentation. Our group was given Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Typhoons. We were to research a definition, facts and figures, mitigation, preparation, response, recovery and teaching the subject. Each person took a section and researched it and then all the information was put together into a power point. The presentation was went well but we were all quite nervous about presenting to our peers. We are told that we should be confident in presenting to our peers because if we aren’t then it means we are not good at presenting to children. I don’t think this is right as presenting to a group of people your own age can be very embarrassing as it feels like they are judging you whereas presenting to a group of children in a classroom is completely different as they are usually interested and they respect you.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (n.d.) What is a disaster? [Online] Available: http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/about-disasters/what-is-a-disaster/
The next topic was all about interdependence, the way in which two or more living things depends on each other to grow and remain healthy. For this topic we were kind of left to do all the learning ourselves, as we had a PowerPoint to look at before the farm visits and then we had various sources to read for the second part of the topic.
I was always one of those children who was never indoors, always playing in the woods with my friends and getting my hands dirty. I’ve also known a lot about farms and farming as my mum and dad were both brought up on farms and enjoy sharing their experiences, and I am very interested in hearing about them too. This meant that I was very excited about the farm visits and I had plenty of questions to ask about the working of each farm.
I think that teaching children about interdependence is very important, and doing it in a practical format like we did would be even more beneficial. The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) provide lots of services around farm visits and they do all the planning for you, including the risk assessments! They also cater children from the age of 3 up to 18, so you could use their services at any stage in a school. I think that taking the children out into their local environment can make them more engaged in learning about how thy can help these local farmers. For example, buying local produce, buying from farmers markets rather than supermarkets, going local before global.
Teaching interdependence could be quite a tricky thing to do, and before we carried out the activities around this topic I was slightly clueless on how you could teach children about interdependence. Personally, I would definitely take a class to a local farm as learning outside the classroom environment is beneficial. I would also use the activity of creating an infographic on piktochart, the only thing I would do differently is give more child friendly sources so the children can understand what is being said.
The experiences and outcomes that would refer to interdependence include:
I have observed living things in the environment over time and am becoming aware of how they depend on each other. SCN 0-01a
I can explore examples of food chains and show an appreciation of how animals and plants depend on each other for food. SCN 1-02a
Through carrying out practical activities and investigations, I can show how plants have benefited society. SCN 2-02b
The following are skills that I have developed throghout this topic:
Listening
Observation
Reading
Technology – Piktochart
Questioning
Collaborating
Critical Literacy
This topic has opened my eyes even further about how important interdependence is and how much of an impact is made if it is interrupted. I’ve also learned that when it comes to farming you do what you can with what you have. Willy said that on his farm they rear sheep and cattle because the one thing that they can grow in abundance is grass, which they can use to feed their animals. There wouldn’t be much point of him trying to grow wheat or corn in a field that can only sustain grass growth.
Interdependence is described as the way in which two or more living things depend on each other to grow and remain healthy. To start off this topic we looked at a presentation describing interdependence and what it involves. There are three types of interdependence :
Economic Interdependence – global marking and trading
Social Interdependence – cultural integration, media and advertising
Environmental Interdependence – looking beyond local impact at global repercussions and responsibilities.
The key concepts of interdependence include: food supply and security, plant and animal breeding, crop protection and animal welfare. The presentation also discussed symbiosis and its three different types.
Mutualism – where both species benefit
Commensalism – Where one species benefits but the other is not significantly affected
Parasitism – Where harm is caused to the host but there are symbiotic benefits.
A case study was also discussed. It told of how Inuit women in northern Canada were found to have high levels of pesticides in their breast milk, more than five times that of most industrialised nations. One pesticide that was found was banned in 34 countries more than 20 years ago. This happened because the chemicals flowed from tropical regions in the air currents and when the chemicals reached colder climates the chemicals condense and fell into the sea where they were absorbed by plankton. The plankton were then eaten by seals, which are the main food source on the North Canadian Inuits, and the chemicals in the seals fatty tissue were taken into the human system.
Following on from the presentation the whole year went of a field trip. We were split into two groups and headed off to two very different farms. One group went to Strandhead farm near Tarbolton and the other group went to Mossgeil farm near Mauchline. The first farm I went to was Strand head. From the outside the farm doesn’t really look like much, there is a large barn with open sides and a big building that we all thought was a house. The farm is very new and was very clean, so all together not what I was expecting or am used to. Upon entering the farm however, I was completely surprised as were the rest of the group at the sheer size of the barn. We started off with a short talk from a woman from the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET). She spoke about the opportunities they provide from school children to visit farms all over the country and how these visits have an impact on their learning. Then we heard a few words from local farmer Willy, who talked about the processes of having a farm and how in recent years the farming community has been struggling, especially from dropping milk prices. Then we went on a tour of the barn. One thing you should know about Strandhead farm is that it is not your ordinary farm. Strandhead is the most technologically advanced farms in Britain and one of the highest ranked farms in the world. Everything is done remotely by machines and robots. There is a machine called Vector that roams up and don the barn adding fresh silage to the cows feed, there is another machine that goes in where the cos are kept and sweeps the floors. There are grates all over the floor when the manure is pushed into and then travels to large slurry tanks underground. There is a machine that fills up Vector with the feed, the bucket is on a roller hanging from the ceiling that comes down and pick up the different types of silage one bucket at a time, it then carries to Vector who mixes it remotely. This is all done via lasers and is an amazing thing to watch. The farm is technologically advance that the cows even milk themselves!
There are two large huts on either side of the barn where the cows go to be milked. Up to four times a day, the cows can go up to these huts, they stand in a cattle crush and a robot uses lasers to find the heifer’s teat. Once the robot has attached the teat cup to the cow a machine starts to pump out the milk. The machine is very sophisticated, it measures the cows weight, scans its tags for its name and number, records the milk yield in total and from each teat as well. While the cows are being milked they are fed with nutrition packed feed, the machine knows how much to give the cow. If anything is unusual when milking, e.g the cows weight has changed, the milk yield has reduced or increased or the cow doesn’t eat her food then a notification is sent to the farmers phone and they come and see what is happening. The machine can also detect if the milk has been contaminated, this would occur if the cow had contracted mastitis, a fatal mammary gland infection. After the cow has been milked her teats and udders are sprayed with disinfectant and she is released. The cows also have a few massagers that they can use whenever they please, all they do is walk up to it and a laser recognises that they are there and it starts to spin. The massager hangs from a crossbar so it is very agile and the cows can move it around. The cows have their own beds that run down the centre of their pen, they are very comfortable as they are made with the organic material left over from the slurry straining. The beds are changed regularly and topped up with fresh material every few days so as to prevent infection. The living areas run along the full length of one side of the barn and along half of the other side of the barn. The rest of the space is taken up by the calves individual pens. When the calves are first born they stay with their mothers for three days and are then put into individual pens. Some people thought that this was a bit cruel, taking the calves from their mother’s so early.
Strandhead farm is an amazing place, so modern and well run, the barn has air conditioning and sensors throughout detect what the temperature is outside and sets in indoor temperature accordingly. There is one thing that sets Strandhead apart from other farms, and that is that the cows have never been outside. There are big shutters that run along one side of the barn that open and close depending on the weather, humidity and wind conditions, so the outside can come in, but the cows themselves have never been outside. This divided some people as they weren’t sure of the animal welfare when they are not getting to experience life outdoors. The farmers justification is that cows are creatures of habit and he has been in situations where ‘free range’ cows have had the barn doors opened for them and they haven’t wanted to go outside at all. Another justification was that this year has been the wettest summer in record and the fields have suffered greatly. They may be animals but I’m sure that they wouldn’t want to be in the pouring rain all the time, we don’t so why would they.
This is the inside of the farm
This is where the cows are kept
This is where the cows food is situated
This is the machine that fills Vector with silage
This is the milking hut
This is the milking machine
This is the computer that runs the milking machine
This is a calf pen
This is where the only bull is kept
After an hour or so we moved on to the second farm. Mossgeil was like entering another dimension, it was a completely different experience. Bryce, the farms owner, started by telling us about the farms history and how they came to be the organic farm they are today. Bryce’s grandfather signed a 100 years lease back in the 1940s and ran the farm for many years before handing it down to his son. Bryce’s father expanded the farm to around 300 acres by buying some more farmland in the vicinity. When Bryce left school he decided that he didn’t want to take over from his father and became an apprentice mechanic and a local Mercedes dealership. A few years down the line Bryce was up for a managerial promotion, but he had just received news that his father was terminally ill and had but two years to live. Bryce then made the decision to go back to the farm and take over from his father. That is when the struggles started. The milk prices dropped from 27p to 17p and the farm started to lose more that ten thousand pounds a month. Then the bank sent a letter informing Bryce and his family that if they didn’t pay then £110,000 in the next few months then they would be filed for bankruptcy. Bryce made the decision to see half the herd and part of their land so they could pay back a large sum of the money the bank wanted. Then the milk prices dropped again to 15p a litre and Bryce decided that enough was enough and he made the bold decision to carry on with the cows he had and become an organic farm. To this day, the farm still owes the bank money but they are getting closer to paying off as the weeks go by.
After telling us about the farms history and its troubles Bryce took us over to the dairy for a tour. We split up into two smaller groups, one headed off into the barn to where the herd is kept and the other group stayed in the milking parlour where Willy described the process. He talked about the number of cows that get milked at once and how the milking machine works. Then we swapped groups and we headed through to the barn to hear about the herd. Bryce explained about how the cows get out as often as the weather allows and that the 4 bulls are kept in with the heifers. He also explained about the separation of the calves from their mothers. When he first took over the farm Bryce decided that he would let the calves stay with their mothers for as long as they needed, but he informed us that they lost 16 calves in the space of a few months. It turns out that the calves were dying because there was a bacteria living on the mother’s teats and because the teats weren’t being sterilised before the cows suckled they were contracting the virus and because calves don’t have immune systems when they are born they were dying. This was a shock to hear as it explained why it’s actually better to separate the calves from their mothers. So that the calves still see their mothers their beds are kept in front of their mothers, but in reality the mothers don’t really bother with their calves after a few weeks. The calves stay in their pens for 8 weeks before they are transferred to another barn where they are kept with other calves so as to develop socialisation skills.
Bryce also explained about the feed the cattle get, including hay and silage that is full of clover which is very good for the cows, beer nuts (which are highly nutritional pellets) and potatoes that have been rejected from the supermarkets. On the farm there was a very large heap of perfectly good potatoes, I would guess at maybe two tonnes, that Bryce cheaply bought from a local farmer because they had all been rejected from the supermarkets because of either their colour, shape or size. The waste is atrocious, although it means that Bryce gets a reasonably cheap food source for his cows the farmer who grew the potatoes is losing thousands of pounds on them because of the way they look. The visit ended with Bryce giving each of us a small bottle of their milk to take home and try, and I can say it was absolutely delicious.
These are beer nuts
This is the milking machine, it can take 12 cows at once
These are the teat cups that are attached to the cows teats
This is where the herd is kept
For the second input on interdependence, we were tasked with making an infographic about the ocean. We were to read and take notes on different sources and then put together our information using a website called Piktochart. We were to put our information under 4 headings:
Biodiversity
Economy and Industry
Policy
Community Impact
In our groups we split up the reading and took notes on them before the session so as to have more time to work on the infographic. This task was quite good fun, the only difficult part was finding relevant information from everyone’s readings. Here is our infographic.
Overall, I would say that the farm visits were very beneficial and I would definitely consider using the services provided by RHET in m future classroom. Piktochart is also a very useful resource and I would use it in a classroom as well, having the children either create their own infographic or using one of the templates provided.
A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organisation or community. This week we were tasked with calculating our own carbon footprints, and to do this we used the WWF measure your footprint website. It asked questions like:
How many people live in our home
What kind of transport do you use and how often
Do you buy locally produced food
How do you heat your home
How often do you buy new things (e.g TVs or computers)
Then once you had completed the quiz you were given a score in percentage compared to the rest of the world. I did the quiz twice, the first time i used my family home and the second time I used my student accommodation. For my family home I received a score of 76%. This means that it is around half of the UK average but nearly double the worldwide average in tonnes of CO2 produced, my family home produces around 8.1 tonnes of carbon a year. My student accommodation flat received a score of 96%. This means that my flat produces 10 tonnes of carbon every year, that’s 4 tonnes less than the UK average and double the worldwide average. There were some questions that I wasn’t sure of the answer, for example I said that the flat was heated using electricity but I don’t know if that’s right, so the score might not be totally accurate. This activity would be quite good to do with kids as they could work out the carbon footprint of their own homes (if they found out all the information needed) and then compare with the other children in the class, then they could work out ways in which they could reduce their carbon footprint at home.
BP carbon footprint toolkit is another resource for calculating carbon footprints. This one is good for calculating the carbon footprints of schools so it would be a good one to do in class. The children can split up into groups and go around the school looking for the information they need to carry out the task. One the score has been calculated the children could discuss ways in which the schools score could be reduced, and if possible it could even lead to new programmes such as a recycling club.
A good resource for showing the effects of climate change in ‘Antarctica on the edge’ which is a video that lasts about 24 minutes and follows a team of scientists as they go around the antarctic taking samples and reviewing the changes in the pole. The video was really interesting and one thing I never knew was that ice could go rotten (where air bubbles are trapped as the ice freezes and causes the ice to be more brittle and porous). I would definitely use this video in a classroom environment when teaching climate change as it was easy to understand and very interesting and I think that children would engage well with it.
After looking through these resources I realise that I have a reasonable carbon footprint but there is room for improvement. I will look at ways in which I can reduce my carbon footprint so as to help the environment but also to set a good example to the children I will someday teach about climate change and eco-friendliness.
The second topic of the module was all about climate change. We looked at the effects and impact of climate change, the links between climate and the environment and the greenhouse effect. In the first workshop there were six different work stations with different activities that we went round. Before that though the whole class took part in a ‘Biome Survival Activity’. For this we were separated into smaller groups and each group was given a biome in which they would have to survive after a plane crash. The task involved us researching the abiotic factors of our crash site: air quality, water supply, light, radiation, temperature, humidity, atmosphere and soil as well as the biotic factors: plants (producers), and both herbivores and carnivores (consumers). The other aspect of the task was that we were do describe in detail how we would survive for three weeks in our biome with only a few items that were saved from the plane wreckage. This activity was good fun but took a long time and meant that it was left unfinished. I think that this activity would be quite good to use in a classroom but it would either have to be done over a number of lessons or some of the activity would need to be changed or removed. Perhaps giving information sheets on the biome to avoid lengthy research times or simpler questions to avoid confusion.
After we had spent some time on the survival activity we began moving around the room to do the other activities. The activities were as follows:
Create an animal – this was where we were to choose a type of biome and use various materials to make an animal that lives in that biome, e.g Polar Bear for Tundra
Homemade tornado – here we used a clear jar with lid, fairy liquid and food colouring to create a visualisation of a tornado
Weather front – this was where we had a large clear basin of room temperature water. We had a plastic cup with hot water and red food colouring and a cup with cold water and blue food colouring. Each cup had a few pebbles in it the keep them weighed down. When the cups were placed in the basin the cold water sank to the bottom and the warm water rose to the top. The different types of water represent cold and warm weather fronts
Climate Quiz – this was a short quiz with different questions for answering misconceptions with climate change
Debate Table – this was where the groups had a discussion about misconception cards about climate change, I didn’t get to this table
Air resistance – this was where you had to create two identical snowflakes from paper, then you scrunched one up into a ball and dropped them from the same height. The aim was to show how air resistance works and that’s why snowflakes and hailstones (scrunched up snowflake) fall at different rates
Doing small and easy activities like this is a great way to pack lots of information into a small time frame. Rather than having one big experiment where the kids just stand and watch, by having lots of small ones it means that they can get their hands on experience and will more times than not, remember the information more than if they were standing round a table watching the teacher. I think that I will use the majority of these experiments in a classroom as they are really simple and easy to prepare, carry out and understand.
This is Leonard the ladybird who lives in a Taiga biome
Our version of the experiment failed as the colours of water were muddled up
The second workshop was all about climate change and politics. We looked at government actions, mitigation, adaptation, effectiveness, international issues and the north-south split. Then as an activity each group was given a stakeholder and were tasked with finding the impacts of climate change that would effect those stakeholders the most. Our group was given the stakeholder of an elderly couple living in New Orleans. We looked at the council of foreign relations website, NASA imaging, World resources institute, climate hot map and the Kyoto and Montreal protocols to help us identify which issues would be more prominent for our elderly couple. We decided that the increase in temperature would be a worrying factor for the couple as with increasing temperature comes illness; specifically heat stroke that effects the young and the elderly. Weather is also affected by temperature increase as hurricanes and tropical storms love warm weather and would become increasingly common. This would mean that the couple would be worrying about evacuation and hospital treatment if such weather anomalies occurred. There were of course other things that would effect the couple for example: insurance rates would become higher or in some cases insurance would not be provided at all as the premium would be ridiculously high and agriculture would be effected leading to some food becoming unavailable leading to poor diet and in turn leading to illness and hospital treatment and hospital overloads.
Whether we want to admit it or not, climate change is happening and we need to do more to reduce its impact. By teaching children about climate change we can mould them into greener people and help them to reduce their own impact on climate change and the worlds impact too. Teaching climate change can be a touchy subject to talk about as some people believe that it should be left to the upper end of the school to avoid scaremongering (talking about natural disasters and events causing death etc.). I, however believe that we should teach children about climate change and how they can help reduce it as soon as they start school. All you would have to do is provide age appropriate information in a way in which the children will understand and remember it. For example, if you ere teaching 1st level about climate change then you could present the information as a story, perhaps about a polar bear who’s house is slowly being destroyed or a family of penguins who have to keep moving because the ice is melting. Once you have read the story you can go on to explain to the children that these things are happening in real life and not just in story books, and that it is happening because of climate change and global warming. As the children move up the school you can use more adult language and incorporate percentages and figures into the equation so they are getting a level of information.
The only way we can help our planet is to teach our planet!
Our first topic was all about the environment, we looked at the natural environment, urban environment and plants and living things. We looked at the mechanics of how plants grow, biodiversity and interdependence and energy sources and sustainability. We also looked at air pollution and how we can identify areas of plants that are being affected by air pollution.
The workshops were very useful in solidifying the learning achieved from the lectures, they were all very practical and I personally find it easier to remember things when they been practised hands on rather than on paper. Throughout the workshops we did various activities. We went out into nature and took tree bark and leaf rubbings using crayons, we went bug watching and tree identifying, we also we out to look for different types of lichen using a chart to help us identify them. We also went on a sensory walk around the University grounds so as to tune in all our senses into the environment around us. I enjoyed this as I often go out with my camera and watch, listen, touch, smell and even sometimes taste nature. Some of the other activities included making food webs, dissecting flowers, identifying plants from a selection of pictures and many others. My favourite activity was the tree identification as I’ve always tried to unsuccessfully remember tree names just by name, but this chart that we were given was very useful as it showed us the exact leaf shapes which was very useful in identifying those trees. These activities would definitely be something that i would use in a classroom in the future. Here are some pictures from the workshops, one is of a tree bark rubbing and the other is of a food web.
The directed study task involved us writing a blog post about our local urban environment, this can be found under the weekly blogs tab. This encouraged us to look at our local environment and experience it in a way that many us won’t have done before. We were also to talk about how we would plan out a lesson or topic around the urban environments of Primary 5 pupils.
There have been a few skills which i have developed throughout the topic of the environment, some of those are:
Observing
Listening
Reading
Evaluating
Experimenting
Analysing
The environment can relate to primary teaching in many ways. It is important to teach children and young people about the environment and ways to protect it as they are the future and one day it will be up to them whether or not the world as we know it survives. Teaching children about the environment doesn’t just help them to understand what is around them and how to protect it, but it can also teach them about making themselves healthier for example to avoid producing unnecessary air pollution by driving to the shop when its only round the corner or buying local produce or growing your own fruit and vegetables rather than buying produce that is flown half way across the world. Here are a few of the Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes that relate to this topic:
I can discuss the environmental impact of human activity and suggest ways in which we can live in a more environmentally responsible way. SOC 2-08a
I can consider the advantages and disadvantages of a proposed land use development and discuss the impact this may have on the community. SOC 2-08b
Having explored the ways journeys can be made, I can consider the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of transport, discussing their impact on the environment. SOC 2-09a
Before starting this module I would like to think that I had a reasonably good understanding of the environment and even if my understanding wasn’t as good as I thought it was, I was interested to learn more about it. So far I’m really enjoying this module as it is feeding my desire to learn and engage more in the sciences as I have always had a passion for them even if my exam results don’t say the same thing! After the lectures and workshops on the environment I can say that I think I would feel quite confident in teaching a class about the environment either in a one lesson format or a topic format.
One thing that learned that I hadn’t ever thought about was that ‘the environment’ doesn’t just mean plants, nature and all things green. I didn’t realise that there is such a thing as an urban environment and that the towns and cities we live in are classed as environment. Before starting this module I would have said that the urban environment is ruining the natural environment, towns and cities are the reason for global warming and air pollution. This is in fact correct. 54% of the world’s population lives in cities, 75% of the global energy consumption comes from cities and 80% of gas emissions that cause global warming come from cities. To tackle the environmental issues of our planet we have to start in the cities all over the world. Air pollution and the majority of the gases causing global warming are not caused y the whole world as a whole, only by the cities that over half of the world live in. So to combat air pollution and global warming we should look at how our cities can become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. This could also be a good activity for children to do as they create and design their own environmentally friendly and sustainable cities, thus showing their learning of the environment and its protection through are and other areas of the curriculum.
Lochgilphead (Ceann Loch Gilb in Gaelic) is a town and former burgh or Argyll and Bute situated at the head of Loch Gilp, a branch off of Loch Fyne, on the west coast of Scotland. The town has a population of approximately 2300 people. Lochgilphead is situated next to the Crinan canal which acted as a major navigable route between the Clyde and the Outer Hebrides from the 18oo’s when it was built. This meant that there was no need to divert round the Kintyre Peninsula or the exposed Mull of Kintyre which was known to be treacherous route.
Lochgilphead has a number of community spaces including a Joint Campus which contains a Pre-5 unit, Primary school, Secondary school and a Learning centre for those with additional needs. The town also has a community centre, library and three Churches or various faiths and a resource centre which caters for people who have disabilities and additional needs. There is also a fire station, Police station, community hospital, there was until recently a psychiatric hospital, an MS centre as well as three different banks, a caravan park, a college, and a castle which is primarily used for council workers however the grounds are open to the public and are very nice.
Lochgilphead also has a number of recreational spaces including a golf course, a swimming pool, a leisure centre, three small playgrounds, a Football pitch, a Shinty pitch and an AstroTurf pitch on the school grounds. There is also a youth centre, a bowling club and a large patch of grass called the ‘front green’ which used to have a putting green but is now used by the public to have picnics or play football etc.
Transport wise, the town has a pretty reliable bus service with local runs being offered frequently. There are also a few people who run taxi services, which are useful for local runs to and from other towns/villages. However, when venturing outside of the area to Glasgow or any other city, the majority of people use cars as the public bus service to Glasgow runs infrequently throughout the day which is useful if you are heading for an all day round trip (7am – 8pm) but if you are only going for a few hours then the bus service is inconvenient.
Lochgilphead has a main road that runs through the town heading from the Glasgow direction to a neighbouring town called Ardrishaig. Lochgilphead has four roundabouts and all other roads are standard main road. Here are some pictures of Lochgilphead taken in the air by a drone.
As you can see from the pictures, the town has quite a few green areas, most of these are people’s back gardens or privately owned spaces such as in the Church grounds. The very back ends of the town lead onto forestry as can be seen above, this is the case for my house as our back garden leads into a forest where my friends and I played as children.
Lochgilphead has quite a few local businesses, some are very small and others are vast and worth a lot of money. Most of the small business are in retail, selling hardware, clothing, fishing tackle etc., others are in the catering business. The larger businesses are in construction or moving. MacLeod’s is the biggest construction company in Lochgilphead, they stretch all over Argyll as well as the islands and are a multi-million corporation. There are also a few trucking companies who mainly deal in the moving of wood from forestry cutting areas, in recent years windmills have also been a major client to them as well as fish farms.
Lochgilphead’s population is pretty big compared to the other towns and villages nearby, but when compared with a city like Glasgow the population of 2300 is minuscule, like a needle in a watermelon. Unfortunately, the air quality has never been recorded in Argyll and Bute but I would imagine that it would be very low as in relation to a city like Glasgow who’s air pollution is only at three we can guesstimate that the air pollution in Lochgilphead would be about 1 because of the towns size. Also we have a lot of trees covered in lichen and that only happens in areas free from air pollution.
Investigating the environment can be very fun and well liked by children, however, when most people hear the word ‘environment’ they think of forests and flowers and nature in general. A lot of people forget or don’t realise that the word ‘environment’ stretches to urban areas too.
Creating a lesson in which children of a Primary 5 class explore the urban environment either in a class or outside of a classroom can vary. My lesson would consist of the children starting off by writing down how they get to school and how long it takes them. Then we would explore the idea of air pollution by looking at Scottish Air Quality website and looking at what the air pollution levels are in that area. Then the children would research what pollutants certain types of transport emit, for example busses, cars, trains etc. Then the children could create a table or chart that shows how much air pollution their mode of transport created on their journey to and from school. This could lead onto a health and well-being topic about how the children could change their transport habits so as to reduce air pollution and get healthier too. They could also look at food and whereabouts in the world different foods come from. Next they work out the air pollution created by boats, planes and lorries by transporting these types of food (e.g fruit and vegetables) to their local supermarket. Then if the school had the space and facilities the children could start their own fruit and veg garden in the school or talk about creating one at home so that they can 1. benefit from the produce that is produced, 2. benefit from seeing how fruit and veg is grown and the amount of effort it takes and 3. learn how buying in certain foods when we could buy locally is harming the environment. Another aspect of this could be talking about food waste, composting and recycling.
I can discuss the environmental impact of human activity and suggest ways in which we can live in a more environmentally responsible way. SOC 2-08a
